Campaign for Dark Skies

Martin Frey wrote in message
. ..
The Milky Way is not "a smear" when seen from a dark location.(like my
back garden) It has the appearance of sharp edges and holes and
patches that are clearly seen without effort. From a dark location the
sky often seems too full of stars. Minute jewels against a velvet
blackness that is itself pierced with masses of stars. Nebulæ stand
out starkly and M31 in Andromeda is so bright as to be unmissable.
It takes about 20 minutes to start adapting properly. Then the
background sky seem to lighten progressively. As your eyes become more
sensitive with longer exposure to low light levels. No Moon, no
torches, no neighbours' lights and no passing traffic are essential. I
often find that they sky becomes almost grey after a couple of hours
outside. Yet contrast is improving steadily until the first light of
dawn.

Dawn! Don't think I've ever seen that.
Grim

*Colin Dawson* wrote:
*Steve Taylor* wrote:
Colin Dawson wrote:
What does the MilkyWay look like? [...] I honestly can't say
that I've seen it.

These days you need somewhere really dark. Where are you
observing from?

I normally observe in Baildon, W Yorks. Which isn't that dark really.
I've been up to Bainbridge a couple of times, that's in the middle of
the dales and it's the darkest that I've observed from. I think I was
unlucky that time.

I'll see it one day.

Hmmn, I used to go observing just a little bit further north than that
on Barningham Moor [1], it's where a mate took this SLR shot of a dust
lanes and star fields:
http://a-bainbridge.members.beeb.net...st_lanes_3.jpg (the coat
hanger cluster is on the left there I think). You don't have problems
with dark adaption do you, say after corrective laser eye surgery or
anything like that?

[1] Barningham Moor:
multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=54.4696&lon=-1.9126&scale=500000&icon=x
versus Bainbridge:
multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=54.3077&lon=-2.1057&scale=500000&icon=x
--
Andrew Urquhart
- Contact me: http://andrewu.co.uk/contact/
- This post is probably time-stamped +1 hour - blame my ISP (NTL)

"Andrew Urquhart" wrote in
message ...
*Colin Dawson* wrote:
*Steve Taylor* wrote:
Colin Dawson wrote:
What does the MilkyWay look like? [...] I honestly can't say
that I've seen it.

These days you need somewhere really dark. Where are you
observing from?

I normally observe in Baildon, W Yorks. Which isn't that dark really.
I've been up to Bainbridge a couple of times, that's in the middle of
the dales and it's the darkest that I've observed from. I think I was
unlucky that time.

I'll see it one day.

Hmmn, I used to go observing just a little bit further north than that
on Barningham Moor [1], it's where a mate took this SLR shot of a dust
lanes and star fields:
http://a-bainbridge.members.beeb.net...st_lanes_3.jpg (the coat
hanger cluster is on the left there I think). You don't have problems
with dark adaption do you, say after corrective laser eye surgery or
anything like that?

[1] Barningham Moor:
multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=54.4696&lon=-1.9126&scale=500000&icon=x
versus Bainbridge:
multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=54.3077&lon=-2.1057&scale=500000&icon=x
--
Andrew Urquhart
- Contact me: http://andrewu.co.uk/contact/
- This post is probably time-stamped +1 hour - blame my ISP (NTL)



I don't have any problems with dark adaption (I think, although I do have
terrible daytime eyesight) I think that the problem was that the night was
a oneoff and I kinda got dewildered and disoriented by the amount of stars.
There were so many stars that it was difficult to pick out consellations
that I know! Also the night wasn't really that good... it was clear with no
moon, but after a couple of hours the mist rolled in and killed the session.
It was also in the middle of winter, so maybe it wasn't the best time of
year to observe the milkyway?

Col.
www.cjdawson.com

Colin Dawson wrote:

I normally observe in Baildon, W Yorks. Which isn't that dark really. I've
been up to Bainbridge a couple of times, that's in the middle of the dales
and it's the darkest that I've observed from. I think I was unlucky that
time.

I'll see it one day.

Come over to Todmorden, any Saturday night when its clear (and dark) and
you'll see it.

http://www.astronomycentre.org.uk for opening details. And its free.

Steve

Martin Frey wrote in message . ..

Colin is clearly not blessed with a location like yours - few of us
are - or he would never have asked the question.

Which is a damned shame. I'm old enough to remember rural villages
with only one gas streetlamp! But I'm a bit too old to remember what
the night skies were really like. I'm sure they must have been
wonderful with the aid of younger eyes. But then came the move to the
town and ghastly streetlights that made my Cubs uniform turn black
instead of green. I doubt there's a village in the UK that doesn't
throw up a light-dome today. The streetlights are already creeping
towards my dark oasis. Someone needs to explain to my why cars need
streetlights to see properly on a small rural road! I have never seen
anybody walking at night in the seven years I have lived here. Not
once! Though I drive along this road every night from work. So why the
lights? :-(

Chris.B

In message , Chris.B
writes
Martin Frey wrote in message
...

Colin is clearly not blessed with a location like yours - few of us
are - or he would never have asked the question.

Which is a damned shame. I'm old enough to remember rural villages
with only one gas streetlamp! But I'm a bit too old to remember what
the night skies were really like. I'm sure they must have been
wonderful with the aid of younger eyes. But then came the move to the
town and ghastly streetlights that made my Cubs uniform turn black
instead of green. I doubt there's a village in the UK that doesn't
throw up a light-dome today. The streetlights are already creeping
towards my dark oasis. Someone needs to explain to my why cars need
streetlights to see properly on a small rural road!

My village has about half a dozen street lamps along the main street and
that is about it. The worst local light dome comes from a mile away
where the huge amount of illumination that the Highways Agency put at
the junction of this little road with the A19 spreads into the sky. To
my north we have Middlesborough city and Teesside industrial complex
where there is a truly massive light dome.

I have never seen
anybody walking at night in the seven years I have lived here. Not
once! Though I drive along this road every night from work. So why the
lights? :-(

Our rural roads are not lit outside the villages in N Yorks.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown

(Chris.B) wrote:

I'm old enough to remember rural villages
with only one gas streetlamp! But I'm a bit too old to remember what
the night skies were really like. I'm sure they must have been
wonderful with the aid of younger eyes. But then came the move to the
town and ghastly streetlights that made my Cubs uniform turn black
instead of green. I doubt there's a village in the UK that doesn't
throw up a light-dome today. The streetlights are already creeping
towards my dark oasis. Someone needs to explain to my why cars need
streetlights to see properly on a small rural road! I have never seen
anybody walking at night in the seven years I have lived here. Not
once! Though I drive along this road every night from work. So why the
lights? :-(

Makes you wonder what the subject of this thread is all about...

--
Martin Frey
http://www.hadastro.org.uk
N 51 02 E 0 47

*Colin Dawson* wrote:
I don't have any problems with dark adaption (I think, although I do
have terrible daytime eyesight) I think that the problem was that
the night was a oneoff and I kinda got dewildered and disoriented by
the amount of stars. There were so many stars that it was difficult
to pick out consellations that I know! Also the night wasn't really
that good... it was clear with no moon, but after a couple of hours
the mist rolled in and killed the session. It was also in the middle
of winter, so maybe it wasn't the best time of year to observe the
milkyway?

Better in summer (in the northern hemisphere) and looking along a line
from Cygnus towards Sagittarius. The latter being the direction towards
the center of the galactic disk. With Patrick Moores favourite analogy
of "two fried eggs slapped back to back" and with the solar system
sitting in the white of the egg towards the outer edge, then looking
towards the egg yolk gives for a better view (summer). In winter [1] the
view is looking through the white of the egg in the direction away from
the yolk and there's not much egg white left to see in that direction
before the fried egg runs out, as it were.

[1] In December just after sunset, and astronomical darkness has set in,
Cygnus and the Milkyway are still visible in the north-west so it's
possible to see the summer and winter Milkway in the same night.
--
Andrew Urquhart
- Contact me: http://andrewu.co.uk/contact/
- This post is probably time-stamped +1 hour - blame my ISP (NTL)

In om,
Chris.B typed:
Martin Frey wrote in message
. ..

towards my dark oasis. Someone needs to explain to my why cars need
streetlights to see properly on a small rural road! I have never seen
anybody walking at night in the seven years I have lived here. Not
once! Though I drive along this road every night from work. So why the
lights? :-(


You would certainly have some comments about our village, then. We are near
a narrow bridge. Just six months after we moved here Powys council erected
some fifteen cobra head HP sodium lamps across the bridge and the approach
roads and also cut down the nearby hedgerows. "For safety" It is now like
daylight within several hundred yards of the bridge. Although the sky is
still dark enough to see the Milky Way this nearby blaze of light prevents
proper dark adaption.

Jo

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 14:22:00 +0100, "Jo"
wrote:

You would certainly have some comments about our village, then. We are near
a narrow bridge. Just six months after we moved here Powys council erected
some fifteen cobra head HP sodium lamps across the bridge and the approach
roads and also cut down the nearby hedgerows. "For safety" It is now like
daylight within several hundred yards of the bridge. Although the sky is
still dark enough to see the Milky Way this nearby blaze of light prevents
proper dark adaption.

We've just come back from a week in a little cottage near
Pontrhydygroes. I was astounded to see the potentially very dark
skies interrupted by a bridge illuminating street light and the
nearest house sporting a dark-busting security light. In such a
remote village with hardly an inhabitant or car in sight at night,
this was a bit sad to see.

--
Pete Lawrence
http://www.pbl33.co.uk
Most recent images http://www.pbl33.fast24.co.uk/recent_images.html